Feast of John, Apostle and Evangelist

Saturday, December 27, 2014
John, Apostle and Evangelist

Today on the Third Day of Christmastide we celebrate the Feast day of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist. We hear in the appointed texts for St. John's day the intent voiced in the First Epistle of John: to declare "what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen ... what we have looked at and touched ... concerning the word of life." The apostle John was in the inner circle along with Peter and James of the disciples of Jesus. It is Jesus who is the one to whom John the Evangelist refers as the “Word made flesh”, and the “Word of life.” The Evangelist John invites us to enter into a life confirmed to the incarnate Word who is the Christ. In the proclamation of this Word and in the holy meal we are invited to see and touch what those who first followed Jesus had seen: Jesus. Tradition has it that John the younger son of Zebedee went to Ephesus after the resurrection. The Gospel of John also suggests that the Apostle, the beloved disciple also took Mary the mother of Jesus, the Theotokos into his own home and cared for her following the death, burial and resurrection appearances of Jesus. Tradition has also identified John, the beloved disciple with having himself been the author of the Fourth Gospel, the three Epistles of John and the Revelation of St. John. As a disciple and among the inner circle of disciples he along with his brother James witnessed the Transfiguration of Jesus recalled by the Gospel writers Matthew, Mark and Luke.

In the sequence of days following the Nativity of our Lord which are part of the octave or twelve days of Christmastide, John’s Feast day follows upon the Feast Day of the Martyrdom of Steven and precedes the Feast of Holy Innocents, Martyrs. John is believed to have died of natural causes and according to tradition was the only one of the twelve disciples to have not suffered a violent death. Thus as John’s feast day falls between the feast days remembering those who died at the hands of others, the Feast of John, Apostle and Evangelist serves to remind us that the calling to Christian discipleship is a calling to what the Celtic Christians called “green martyrdom”; that is we are called to witness to what God in Christ has, is and will do in our world, through acts of love and mercy.

Mary, the Mother of God, the Theotokos who bore Jesus, becomes in the Gospel of John the figure of the Church. In John 19 we hear:

²⁵Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ ²⁷Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

John the beloved disciple becomes for all of us an icon or a true image of our calling as baptized disciples to care for the Church just as we would for Mary the Mother of God.

          

Prayer of the Day

Merciful God, through John the apostle and evangelist you have revealed the mysteries of your Word made flesh. Let the brightness of your light shine on your church, so that all your people, instructed in the holy gospel, may walk in the light of your truth and attain eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

First Reading

Genesis 1:1–5, 26–31

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, ²the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. ³Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. ⁴And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
²⁶Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."
²⁷So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
²⁸God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." ²⁹God said, "See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. ³⁰And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. ³¹God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Psalm (ELW)

Psalm 116:12–19

Precious in your sight, O LORD, is the death of your servants. (Ps. 116:15)

¹²How shall I re- ^| pay the LORD

     for all the good things God has ^| done for me?

¹³I will lift the cup ^| of salvation

     and call on the name ^| of the LORD.

¹⁴I will fulfill my vows ^| to the LORD

     in the presence of ^| all God's people.

¹⁵Precious in your ^| sight, O LORD,

     is the death ^| of your servants.   R

¹⁶O LORD, truly I ^| am your servant;

     I am your servant, the child of your handmaid;

     you have freed me ^| from my bonds.

¹⁷I will offer you the sacrifice ^| of thanksgiving

     and call upon the name ^| of the LORD.

¹⁸I will fulfill my vows ^| to the LORD

     in the presence of ^| all God's people,

¹⁹in the courts of ^| the LORD's house,

     in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. ^| Hallelujah!   R

Second Reading

1 John 1:1—2:2

Chapter 1

We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life — ²this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us — ³we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
⁵This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; ⁷but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Chapter 2

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; ²and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Gospel

John 21:20–25

²⁰Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, "Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?" ²¹When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about him?" ²²Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!" ²³So the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?"
²⁴This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. ²⁵But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.